The Charge

Sit down or get out of the way!

Opening Statement

I'm a terrible television viewer. There are six or seven shows on TV right
now that I really enjoy, but other than Community and Parks and Recreation, which I kept up
with fairly well, I saw maybe two episodes of any of the others. In the case of
30 Rock, I didn't see a single Season Six episode, so I'm really glad to
be able to review it, if only to watch it the way I truly enjoy television
comedy: marathon-style.

Facts of the Case

It's been a big offseason for the cast and crew of TGS with Tracy
Jordan. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey, Mean
Girls) has ditched her old boyfriend and may have a secret new one; Jack
Donaghy (Alec Baldwin, Beetlejuice) is still dealing
with the fact that his wife, Avery Jessup (Elizabeth Banks, The Hunger Games), has been kidnapped
by the North Koreans; Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski, Ally McBeal) has a new gig on America's
Kidz Got Singing; and Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) is making
final preparations for the coming rapture. What's in store for the gang this
year? We'll find out over the subsequent 21 episodes.

The Evidence

By the sixth season, almost any show will have jumped the shark; 30
Rock seems to have done so in its third or fourth. Strangely, though, as the
show has gotten wilder and more absurd, I have enjoyed it more than ever. While
the characters and performances have remained stationary, the storylines have
gone completely off the rails.

Whether it's the Avery Jessup plot and their absurd depiction of a still
living Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un (both portrayed, oddly, by Margaret Cho,
The Thin Pink Line) or the ongoing, Fatal Attraction-style feud between
Jenna and new page Hazel (Kristen Schaal, Toy Story 3), the writers have a great
handle on how to make things utterly ridiculous.

The whole season is strong, but two episodes really stand out. First is
"Murphy Brown Lied To Us," about dealing with the thought of babies and
American-made couches. With Jenna's breakdown to get her boyfriend (Will Forte,
MacGruber) back, Jack's scheme to sell his
terrible couches to the government as torture devices, and the absolutely
brilliant Kouchtown promos by Stacy Keach (Escape from L.A.), the episode is
best twenty minutes of television 30 Rock has ever produced. The second
is "Live from Studio 6H," their second attempt at a live episode, which is far
stronger than the first and is very funny. The difference is that, last year,
they tried to make a regular episode of 30 Rock, but in front of a studio
audience and, while it was an admirable attempt, it didn't work very well. This
time, they've basically made a series of sketches, obviously the kind of thing
Fey knows how to do, and it comes off as a really fantastic 22-minute episode of
Saturday Night Live. With all the SNL
alums already on the show and the addition of many more, it's a reminder of how
good sketch comedy can be. All the additional guests, including Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Paul McCartney, and Donald
Glover (Community), who I didn't realize
was an original 30 Rock writer, it's an impressive bit of television
toward the end of a great season of the show.

30 Rock: Season Six arrives on DVD in a good set with some image
problems. Presented in standard definition 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, the
colors and flesh tones look really good, black levels are deep, and whites are
bright. The problem comes in the transfer, which has subtle digital artifacts
all over. It's especially apparent in the live episode, but it exists to some
degree in every episode, like they just forgot about the SD release in lieu of
the Blu-ray, which seems to be happening more often now than when the format was
new. The Dolby 5.1 Surround mix is much better, though, a strong representation
of how it fares in the broadcast.

For extras, we get audio commentaries on four episodes, with producers and
writers from the crew, one with Judah Friedlander (The Wrestler), and a strange one with Jack
McBrayer and his young nephew, conducted over Skype, that is cute, but really
doesn't work. Next, nearly twenty deleted and extended scenes show a few of the
cuts that were made, some for time and some for flow. Finally, three short
featurettes give behind the scenes information on the live episode, including
the pre-show warm up featuring Krakowski and essentially non-cast member
Cheyenne Jackson (United 93) singing a
couple of songs, once again proving that both actors can truly belt it out.

Closing Statement

Alas, all good things must come to an end, as 30 Rock will finish
itself out with a shortened seventh season. How will they wrap up their all the
great times they've had on the show? We'll find out in a few weeks and, if
Season Six is any measure, I can't wait.